My Italian Wedding Soup has been a viral sensation on the internet over the past few years, with well over 20 million views and hundreds of thousands of likes. With my technique of frying the meatballs for extra flavor and adding simple ingredients like a parmesan rind, this soup is one of our weeknight family favorites!
If you love Italian soup, you HAVE to give these a try: Pasta Fagioli with Spinach, EASY Chicken Farro Soup, Classic Italian Minestrone, or White Bean Lentil Soup.
A Quick Look at The Recipe
- ✅Recipe Name: Italian Wedding Soup
- ⏲️Ready in: 1 Hour
- 👪Makes: 8 servings
- 📋Main ingredients: Mini Meatballs, Spinach, Orzo.
- ⭐Why You'll Love This Recipe: Italian Wedding Soup is a hearty, filling Italian-American classic. It's the perfect comfort meal for any weekend or cold winter day!
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Why This Recipe?
This recipe is the best Italian-American rendition of Italian Wedding Soup because of a few key details:
- Fry the meatballs to develop a sear and fond on the bottom of the pan.
- You can adjust the recipe to use the vegetables and ingredients available to you.
- Simple tips like adding parmesan rinds and seasoning in layers.
- Cooked in under an hour.
Although it's not actually served at Italian weddings, this dish is called Italian Wedding Soup because its translation from minestra maritata (married soup) got a little confusing for people. The soup is called "married" because of the marrying of meat and vegetables together in the soup. It's similar to a Zuppa Toscana with the meat and vegetables combined in the soup!
Whatever the reason this soup is called Italian Wedding Soup, it's delicious, and it is a whole meal and not just a side soup. Even though it is an Americanized version of an Italian classic, it's just as delicious, similar to our One-Pot Lasagna Soup.
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Meatballs. My mom likes to use ground pork and ground beef for her meatballs. My mother-in-law has always used just ground beef. I lean toward only ground beef even when I'm making Classic Italian Fried Meatballs, because I am usually only making a pound of meatballs. Also, these meatballs are so small that you don't need to use an egg as a binder.
- Pasta. Classic Italian Wedding Soup is made with acini de pepe, but it's not always easy to find. You can substitute orzo as I did, or use any pastina.
- Parmesan Rind. I like to add a Parmesan rind to my soup. It's an additional salty flavor that will help with thedepth of flavor in the soup.
- Vegetables. Celery can be an additional add-on vegetable, but we don't typically use it in our wedding soup. Since wedding soup can be whatever veggies you want, feel free to add celery if you like that in your soffritto.
- Spinach. Escarole is a more authentic Italian substitute that we sometimes use, but spinach is a lot easier to find.
*Please see the recipe card below for more information on the ingredients
How to Make Italian Wedding Soup
Step 1: Combine ground beef, parmesan, parsley, breadcrumbs, milk, salt, and pepper for the meatballs.
Step 2: Roll the meatballs out into quarter-sized meatballs. Making the little meatballs can be a pain without a little scooper. If you have one, you can make them all the same size.
Step 3: In the pot, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and bring to medium-high heat. Sear the meatballs for about 30-45 seconds on each side. They will sear quickly because they're so small. Set them aside.
Step 4: Remove the oil from the pot. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté for 5 minutes or until they begin to soften. Add the carrots and sauté for 3 more minutes until they are glistening as shown in PHOTO 4. Then stir in the garlic for a minute until fragrant.
Testing Tip: I've tested this recipe over 15 times with and without searing the meatballs. Searing is by far better flavor than the traditional, boiling the meatballs.
Step 5: Pour in the broth and add the bay leaves and 1 teaspoon of salt. This is when I'd typically add a parmesan rind for flavor. Bring to a boil and then immediately lower to a simmer.
Step 6: Add the meatballs and simmer for 15 minutes. Then stir in the pasta and simmer for an additional 10-15 minutes until the pasta is al dente.
Step 7: Remove from the heat. Add the spinach and cover for 3 minutes. Remove the lid and stir in the spinach. Serve hot!
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Top-Tips
- Searing vs. not searing the meatballs. Look, I know they're not usually seared in wedding soup, but here's why I do it:
- The problem with simmering 80/20 beef in soup is that the meat lets off fat, and then the soup has a layer of fat. I sear the meatballs to render the fat off.
- The searing process creates a layer of fond on the bottom of the pan. This, once deglazed, will create a more savory flavor in the soup.
- Seared meatballs are objectively more flavorful than those that are just simmered. You might lose some of the tender texture, but the flavor is more important.
- Sautéing the vegetables. Let the onion soften before adding the carrots. Don't saute the carrots for too long. You want them to hold their shape in the soup! Add them to the onions right as the onions are about ready.
- Don't overwork your meatballs. The less you mix them, the softer their texture will be.
- Add a parmesan rind when you add your bay leaves. Parmesan rinds are filled with salt and help slowly season your soup as it cooks.
Storage and Reheating
If you plan on storing a lot of the soup, I suggest cooking the orzo separately and then adding it in as you eat, so that the pasta doesn't soak up all of the soup when you store it away. When the pasta is bigger, like the tortellini in Rustic Italian Tortellini Soup with Sausage or Broccoli Rabe and Tortellini Soup, you don't have to worry as much about the soup being soaked up.
Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days and in the freezer for 3 months.
When reheating, if you already have pasta in the soup, add extra chicken broth because the pasta will have soaked up a lot.
FAQs on Italian Wedding Soup
There's a lot of debate about what's actually in this soup, but basically, as long as it has meatballs, leafy greens, and some pastina, you can call it Italian wedding soup.
So many people think this soup isn't actually Italian. It is definitely Italian, but it has nothing to do with a wedding. The word wedding was loosely translated from the Italian name minestra maritata, which means "married" soup, referring to the marrying of inexpensive meat and leafy greens in the soup!
No, not really. The meatballs are so small that you will dry them out by trying to bake them. While Should you Bake or Fry Meatballs is a perfectly normal question when it comes to larger meatballs, you're better off just cooking the meatballs in the soup if you don't want to fry.
When making meatballs for Italian wedding soup, you may have to adjust your milk and breadcrumbs amounts. If the meatball mixture is feeling a bit dry ad 2 more tablespoon of milk. If it feels too wet and sticky, add 2 tablespoon of breadcrumbs.
Favorite Italian-American Classics
Please leave a comment and star rating below in the recipe card! I love to hear what you think of our recipes. Feel free to tag us on Instagram @vindelgiudice.
Italian Wedding Soup
Equipment
- 1 large pot
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 lb ground beef
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese
- ¼ cup milk
- ½ cup bread crumbs
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Soup
- 2 carrots, sliced
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 qts chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups baby spinach or escarole
- 1 cup orzo or acini de pepe
- 2 tablespoon olive oil, to fry meatballs
Instructions
- Combine the ingredients for the meatballs and roll them into small meatballs about the size of a quarter.
- In the pot, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and bring to medium-high heat. Sear the meatballs for about 30-45 seconds on each side. They will sear quickly because they're so small. Set them aside.
- Remove the oil from the pot. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and saute for about 5 minutes or until they begin to soften. Stir in the carrots and saute for an additional 5 minutes. Then stir in the garlic for a minute until fragrant.
- Pour in the stock and add the bay leaves and 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil and then immediately lower to a simmer. Add the meatballs and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Then stir in the pasta. Simmer for 10-15 more minutes, until the pasta is al dente. Remove the pot from the heat. Add the spinach and cover for 3 minutes. Then stir it in and serve hot!
Video
Notes
- Searing vs. not searing the meatballs. Look, I know they're not usually seared. But the flavor you get from quickly searing them first is unmatched. I've made this dish so many times both ways. It is light years better with seared meatballs.
- Sauteing the vegetables. Let the onion soften before adding the carrots. Don't saute the carrots for too long. You want them to hold their shape in the soup! Add them to the onions right as the onions are about ready.
- Don't overwork your meatballs. The less you mix them, the softer their texture will be.
Karl says
Made this for our weekly game night. Was absolutely delicious. Searing the meatballs is a little extra work, but it's SO WORTH IT!
Sharon Vicera says
As soon as I saw this reel on Instagram I HAD to make it. So I made it for dinner and WOW it is SO GOOD!! This is definitely a new favorite of our familys! All 3 of my kids love it and will be having it for their school lunch tomorrow 🎉👍🏼👍🏼 I can’t wait to send a pot over to my mom’s house this week! Thank you for this amazing recipe!!
Brenda says
Second time making this, absolutely delicious. I did add an extra cup of chicken broth, the second time, to keep it soupy for lunch the next day and it worked out perfect. Thank you
Darlene says
We just had this for lunch, It was delicious, the only thing I changed I added just 1/2 bag of spinach... I will make this again.
Al Maurer says
Great recipe. I replaced the meatballs with frying a pound of mild Italian sausage patties then cutting into half inch cubes. It makes the recipe easier and faster to make.
Zach G says
I would lower the bread crumb amount next time, felt there was to much. Otherwise amazing!!
Nazema says
Delicious! Everyone loved it. Used kale because that’s all I had.
Vincent DelGiudice says
Kale is a great substitution! I use that in Zuppa Toscana!